Postseason pressure not fazing WCU's Norris

WEST CHESTER — JP Norris is no stranger to postseason competition in softball from her playing days at Spring-Ford High School and she has been well-exposed to pressure games with high stakes during her travel club career.

But this weekend, Norris, along with her West Chester University teammates, will be playing softball on a whole new plateau — competing at the “higher heights.”

Today and Saturday, West Chester will face Kutztown University in a best-of-three NCAA Division II Super Regional series at Kutztown.

“This is the first time West Chester has ever gone to the Super Regionals,” said WCU coach Diane Lokey. “Before this year, there had been only one NCAA game and it was a loss. This was only our third time to the Regional Tournament.”

Advertisement

West Chester (37-19) reached the Super Regionals by posting three wins last weekend in the Atlantic Region 1 pod of the NCAA Division II Softball Tournament. The Rams started with a 10-1 victory over Lock Haven and then defeated No. 8 California (Pa.) twice on the Vulcans’ home field — 4-3 and 6-3.

Kutztown (32-21), which is defending Atlantic Region champion, won three of three last weekend to secure the Atlantic Region 2 pod for the right to defend its Atlantic Region title.

“When I was a freshman, we went to the PSAC (Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference) finals and were one win away from making Regionals,” said Norris, a junior. “Last year we made it to Regionals and lost in the first round, so this is a whole new experience for all of us.

“We had split with California during the regular season. When we went out there last week, we had high energy going into the games. We knew Cal would hit the ball and we knew we had to come back and answer those hits and scores.

“Everyone was ready on every pitch. Softball is a huge mental game. We were really focused and that was a big reason why we were able to win.”

Now, West Chester faces a team it has played five times already this season — and defeated only once. On March 29, WCU split a doubleheader at West Chester winning 8-5 and losing 9-3. On April 14 at Kutztown, the Bears won 1-0 and 10-2. On May 2, KU defeated WCU 11-3 in the PSAC playoffs at Veteran’s Park in Quakertown.

The first game of this weekend’s series is today at 1 p.m. at Kutztown’s North Campus Field. Game Two is slated for 1 p.m. Saturday and Game Three, if necessary, will follow at 3:30 p.m.

“They’ve always been our big rival in the PSAC East,” said Norris. “They’re a strong offensive team. Everyone in our lineup has the ability to get hits. We just have to bring focus and energy.”

Norris, a slick-fielding shortstop, is a big reason the Golden Rams have been able to advance so deep in post-season competition. She has started all 54 games and is batting .285 with 25 runs scored. She also has a very an impressive fielding average of .973.

“JP is just incredible defensively,” said Lokey. “She had just six errors in 54 games and two of them were flat-tops she missed. It’s so relieving as a coach to have such a great defensive player.

“She’s also a very good batter. JP also doesn’t strike out very often. She’s a real team leader. Another thing that’s great about JP is that she’s the same every day. She’s very composed.”

Next weekend, eight Super Regional winners will advance to the 2013 NCAA Division II national finals at the Moyer Complex in Salem, Va. The Atlantic Region winner will play the winner of the Midwest Region on May 23 at 5 p.m. Top-ranked Indianapolis (53-6) takes on No. 9 Grand Valley State (42-6) in that Super Regional this weekend.